While students who attend colleges governed by the Tennessee Board of Regents and attempt more than 12 credit hours each semester may see tuition hikes if the board alters their fee structure, the University of Tennessee is not yet considering such a change.

The Board of Regents, which oversees all public colleges in the state not part of the University of Tennessee system, has been considering a flat per-hour charge for all students, regardless of how many hours they take. Currently, at both TBR and UT schools, students who take more than 12 hours are charged a “full-time” rate, equal to 12 hours.

The possible change would mean increased tuition costs for students taking more than 12 hours.

TBR Vice Chancellor for Business and Finance Robert Adams cited students not taking their courses seriously as cause for looking into potentially changing the fee structure, which has been in place for at least 50 years.

“The only thing we’ve done is committed to the board we’re going to look at it,” Adams said. “I’m going to be assembling some campus business people to look at it this fall. We would want to have a decision at least by the spring to take to the board.”

If an investigatory committee moves swiftly, the new fee structure could be in place at TBR colleges by next fall.

Adams said the idea came up as a way to keep classes filled and avoiding course underutilization.

“Some of our more crowded universities have said they are concerned about students signing up for 18 hours and then, by the drop date, dropping hours, making those seats go unused,” he said. “They’re concerned students may be course-shopping.”

If approved, the change would be revenue-neutral, Adams said. In other words, the move would not be made in order to make money. Rather, TBR would determine a per-credit-hour tuition rate to be applied to all students. As a result, part-time students would likely pay less for their education, and full-time students taking more than 12 hours may pay more than they would have under the current system.

Part-time students—at both TBR and UT schools —already pay by the hour.

“What we are trying to avoid is students signing up for a class, waiting two or three weeks to see if they like the professor, then dropping the course,”Adams said.

But while TBR is mulling making the move, UT administrators don’t have changing the fee structure on the agenda—for now.

Sylvia Davis, UT vice president for administration and finance, said the UT system looked into moving to a flat, per-credit-hour charge in 2002, but then the passage of the Tennessee Education Lottery in 2003 put those plans on hold.

“We were afraid of putting any new structure in place because of the lottery,” Davis said. “We’ll come back in and start looking at it to see what’s the fair thing to do.”

The university system said before the lottery implementation, UT considered several alternatives, all of which were revenue-neutral, Davis said.

She said when the university looked into moving away from the present system in 2002, the prevailing reasoning for the move was equity.

“If you have a student who’s taking 21 hours, then someone’s subsidizing your cost,” Davis said. “There’s a fairness issue.”

Additionally, Davis said there would be an incentive for boosting part-time enrollment in a revenue-neutral, per-hour charge system, since part-time tuition would end up being less expensive than under the current system.

UT’s New College, the online branch of the university, already charges on a per-hour basis regardless of the number of hours a student attempts.

Davis added there are several ways to potentially make the existing fee structure fairer, other than charging a flat per-hour rate after 12 hours.

Some states use 15 hours as the threshold, some colleges use a tiered hourly charge system, and others give a students discounts for taking classes early in the morning, when courses are traditionally underutilized.

— Wesley Murchison of MTSU’s The Sidelines contributed to this report.